Category: Painting
-
The Scale Modelling Culture

Or ” How I learned to cut throats on a green plastic mat “. As scale model builders we mess with the ideas of popular culture all the time. The vast majority of the population who have never built anything smaller than an IKEA bookshelf have no idea what closely focusing on a fresh kit…
-
Vought Corsair F4U-1 – Part Four – Delivery In A Plain Envelope

Students of military aviation are very quickly attuned to the finer points of insignia, markings, and unit numbers. You have only to go to some of the more intense internet modelling forums to read people engaging in passive/aggressive arguments about the exact position of the ” No Step ” stencils on the Hurricane Mk XXXIV…
-
The Painting Stand

We need a new accessory for scale model building…as if we do not have enough already… We need a cheap, sturdy, steady, adjustable stand to hold a model while it is being spray painted. It must be capable of holding the model firmly and in balance, and the spray must be able to reach all…
-
Grumman Widgeon – Part Two – Port and Cheese

I cannot decide now that the Grumman Widgeon is done and sitting on the photo floor, whether I enjoyed myself building it or not. If you go by the mis-fitting engines, nacelles, windscreen, and landing gear, it was a misery. If you looked at the wing, fuselage, and tail assemblies as they mated, it wasn’t…
-
Grumman Widgeon – Part One – The Small Goose

The Sherriff’s Mini Cars shelves had some of the best and oddest kit shopping I have been able to do for some time. Stashes had disgorged treasures and/or trash and they were sensibly priced for all that. I have no idea how new the Widgeon is, not how long it may have mouldered on the…
-
De Havilland Vampire T.11 – Part Four – Baked Bat

It’s not your eyes. Your eyes are fine. It’s not your computer. You need not re-calibrate it. The scale model Vampire T.11 really looks like that. And its counterpart in the Negev does too. The desert sun has very little air shade, no ground shade, and winds that blast from all directions. The paint that…
-
De Havilland Vampire T.11 – Part Three – Do Not Decal

At least do not decal when you can paint. I am in awe of modellers who can make a decal panel lay down over an undulating wing or fuselage and have it come out taut and flat with no silvering or air bubbles. Even more so when the decal involves several panels abutting each other.…
-
De Havilland Vampire T.11 – Part Two – Voila

No apologies for going from the bare kit parts to the glued-together carcass…it has been a busy two days. The model building club’s rooms have air conditioning and so does my computer room – I have repaired to them to escape the 40º plus heat in Perth. My workshop goes far above that on a…
-
De Havilland Vampire T.11 – Part One – Going Batty
By now you probably feel you have reason to question my sanity – I am starting to build my third De Havilland Vampire in 1:72 scale. One DH.100 as a Canadian museum piece, then a Swiss Vampire with extended nose, and now a two-seat trainer. What is it with these bats? Well, the first was…
-
De Havilland DH. 100 Vampire FB.6 – Part Two – Well That Was Fast…

You’ll forgive me for not taking any pictures of the pignose as it was being assembled. Too much was going on in the house at the time. The build was uneventful – thanks to the precision fit of the components hardly any filler was needed. And the tail sections fitted perfectly with no long packing…
